Christmas Eve Day Enchiladas

So I got my Christmas tamales - from Gerardo's this year - and they're very good.

But today I had a taste for enchiladas - Christmas Eve Day enchiladas? A new tradition?


Enchiladas Espinacas with panela cheese, mushrooms and cilantro at La Guadalupana Bakery and Cafe on Dunlavy. Excellent.

Merry Christmas to all.

Taqueria Tacoocho

'Tacos de la Ciudad'
South Post Oak at Beltway 8

This post has been edited to add some explanation of 'rose meat' and another picture.


Boy did I think I had a real find when I first got a good look at this one. I've seen it many times, even tried to stop once but the driveway of the filling station was so crowded there was no place to park. It's a very well maintained unit that I've observed doing a lot of business on numerous occasions.


As I've mentioned I like to look for the less common offerings and the menu here was very promising. On the breakfast menu are tacos de machacado, lengua en chipotle and tacos revolcados. The regular menu includes mollejas (sweetbreads) and machitos de chivo (goat tripe); mollejas are somewhat rare and I've never seen machitos anywhere so I was very encouraged.


On my first visit, however, I wasn't feeling very adventurous and I went for the alambre - beef (sirloin I think), bacon, grilled onions and poblanos and cheese. This was a larger taco on a beautiful, thick, hand-made tortilla and it was excellent with a very generous amount of filling. Although I only sampled it after finishing the taco the salsa verde was very good, too.


I made another stop a couple of days later and was disappointed to learn that both the mollejas and machitos are no longer served so I tried the suadero and chorizo. These were the smaller Mexico City style tacos for only $1 apiece. I haven't had suadero more than a couple of times but this was the best I've had, tender and juicy pieces of both the fatty and lean portions of brisket I think. The chorizo was very mild but excellent. Both salsas were very good with the green one much hotter.

I tried to ascertain what the revolcados on the breakfast menu are but neither of the crew members nor another customer were able to explain it; I didn't ask if the machacado and lengua are even available and since I seldom go out for breakfast it will be sometime before I get there for breakfast but I will stop at this truck again.

Edit 2/7/10: I came across this explanation of suadero or rose meat... "is a cut of beef... or couple related cuts of beef (depends on the butcher you talk to)... that involves the areas adjacent to brisket & belly... its a tough cut of meat that is usually brined or pickled before a long, slow cooking then finished up on the griddle." The authority goes on to compare it to corned beef and said that since it is pink, like pork, this may be where the name rose meat comes from.

Recently I went back to Tacoocho to try it again.


This time the suadero was not nearly as tender but the cabeza was awesome.

While there, I spotted another truck across Post Oak and went over to check it out. Taqueria Salmanca has mollejas and machitos on the menu also and they were able to serve the mollejas. What I got was not as good as Tacambero behind Canino's but was good nonetheless.

Tacos Pacos

Beechnut @ La Roche, Club Creek just south of Beechnut, and Harwin @ Allday

I noted the first two of these on my survey of Beechnut mobil vendors. I passed the list on to Ziggy Smogdust and he hit the unit at La Roche and was really pleased with what he got. I've since been to the La Roche and Club Creek locations.

I had noted the menu of the La Roche location included cesina and chivo but what Ziggy discovered on the menu also was buche which is new to both of us. Buche is either pig's esophagus or pig's small intestine, considered a type of carnitas because of the preparation method. Ziggy had a beautiful picture posted on the other blog showing the carmelization of the exterior.


I got a ton of cilantro on my tacos and although I didn't get as good a picture as Ziggy I enjoyed the buche just as much. This was the most delicately flavored carnitas I've ever had and I was an instant fan. The chivo also was excellent, not at all gamey although the salsa was on the cusp of gaminess. I couldn't wait to try both of these types of tacos again.


On my second visit I tried the Club Creek location. This unit sits next to a bottled water kiosk and is not quite as down at the heels as the other location.


The menu here lists birria instead of chivo and adds camaron to the list but I didn't notice the birria before I ordered and I got buche and tripas. As the picture reveals there was virtually no carmelization of the buche and it wasn't nearly as spectacular; the tripas was medium crispy with a little charring on some pieces. The salsa, in a dispenser on the counter along the side of the wagon, looked good and fresh and there were also pickled vegetables to help yourself to.

Since learning what buche is and experiencing it I've noticed it on other taco truck menus too and will have to be trying it elsewhere. It is not on the menu of the Harwin location of Tacos Pacos.

Taqueria Chilangos

4330 W. Fuqua @ Monrad, 1 block east of Hiram Clarke


I've been spending some time on the south side again recently, noting taco trucks of course. I've been to El Ultimo on Long Point for tripas recently, Tacos Pacos for buche and tripas and El Barrio Alto for tripitas; I just couldn't face any more tacos today, especially any involving parts of the digestive systems of other animals, so when I saw a torta I'd never heard of before - Chavo del 8 - I had to try it.


It takes its name from a popular Spanish language sitcom about an orphan who lives on the street and likes ham sandwiches. Okay, sounds like a strange idea for a sitcom but I've never seen it. Anyway, the sandwich involves slices of deli ham, 2 melting cheeses (amarillo y blanco), lettuce, tomato, avocado, and mayonnaise but no refritos, all served up on a very thin and huge telera that was nicely toasted on the griddle. In fact the whole sandwich was heated up. Pretty simple and very satisfying.

They also do gringas and have an alambre platillo for lunch.